Friday, June 26, 2015

Gay marriage, at long last (but not here)

Yes dear readers, I did cry a little when I saw that picture. I do not know why, but it had that quality.

Today finally the United States Supreme Court bowed to what was unavoidable, to what civilized countries in the world had been granting one by one over the last two decades. Any two not directly related adults in a stable union should all have the same rights.

PERIOD.

It is THAT simple.


Recovering Venezuela is going to be more difficult than what most people think

There are reckless souls in the opposition that claim that a mere change in the National Assembly and a couple of years of decent public administration are enough to turn around the Venezuelan Economic crisis.

I think such talk is simply reckless even if its intentions are merely electoral. At this point stirring false hopes is a deadly undertaking for whichever side. At least chavismo being in full denial mode is pretending that there are only minor problems that are the fault of foreign interests, period. It does not help them much but it cannot hurt them much either compared to its other problems.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

In victory we eat

This morning finally Leopoldo Lopez, reported not being able to stand up anymore, has let it be known that he ended his hunger strike and asked that others end their own as well. Too many are heralding the calling for elections a great victory for Lopez, but I beg to differ. A victory it is but it lays elsewhere, associated to Leopoldo Lopez, make no mistake.

Let's look at the "electoral victory" first.

Monday, June 22, 2015

Hunger strike succeeded? Elections on December 6

UPDATED. One of the main petitions of the hunger strikes holding around the countries was that the Venezuelan electoral board, CNE, announces the date for parliamentary elections. Only in Venezuela we need hunger strikes to get what should be a routine date set up that should have happened a year ago!

At any rate after a tortuous press announcement where CNE head Tibisay Lucena attacked everyone for "distortion" of reality when she could have done the announcement on a web page weeks ago she said they would be held on December 6, which was the legal date all along. Attacking Twitter will not save Tibisay from the established charges that she is a mere minister of pseudo electoral affairs of the regime.

And speaking of Twitter the first consequence to be expected:


Was Leopoldo Lopez hunger strike discussed in Port au Prince?

As I was sitting to write this entry where one of my intentions was to pat myself in the back, I run through a just out the presses article by Jackson Diehl from the WaPo. To all what has been discussed lately about the (in)famous meeting between Shannon and Cabello Diehl adds the lone noteworthy data:

the U.S. diplomacy has a modest goal: to prevent López’s death. Shannon told Cabello the continuance of the dialogue between the two governments depended on López remaining alive and being convinced to end his hunger strike, sources said.


Friday, June 19, 2015

Waterloo, morne plaine.

Today some celebrated the gentle anachronism that Waterloo has become. Indeed, until 1914 Waterloo was the battle that defined Europe. But things have changed. There were weeks in WWI and II were more folks died than during all of Napoleonic wars. Still, I suppose that I should meditate about it, least some accuse my French side to ignore the whole issue as a cowardice of sort.

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

24 days of hunger strike for Leopoldo Lopez

I do not want to go into details here. But it has taken 24 days for the cruel regime to allow a trusted physician to go and check on Leopoldo Lopez. Such is the talent of those in charge, willing to let him die if necessary, in gulag conditions.

I have written that he should stop his hunger strike, no matter how principled that one is because in front he has thugs that are happy to see him go.  They are wrong, they will pay a big price, but they cannot see that, and they would not care anyway. Totalitarian dictators ALWAYS go down taking everyone with themselves.

Now we enter the critical days for Leopoldo Lopez where irreversible damage may happen. Where the worst may happen. I wish I were able to pray. And, by the way, I see a lot of people inside the opposition that claim to pray but do not seem to be doing so.

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Cabello's adventures, or when the US of A pays its failed foreign policies

WSJ front page narco national assembly chair Diosdado Cabello was on quite a grand tour this past week. Before we run into all sorts of speculations let's look at the pictures and then stick to the bare facts of the situation. You'll find out, I trust, that things may not be as complicated as you may think.

The little friends Diosdado went to visit were the ones from Brazil: ineffable Lula who has helped actively the red corruption spread all over the continent and,

All smiles, presents exchanged, luncheon awaiting in the back.
The HSBC 14 billion man, the Memsalao/Petrobras man and the NarcoCapo man


Monday, June 15, 2015

Yardsticks for tyranny

Today the weekly edition of Tal Cual offers us a piece for thought (1). They compared the time spent by Chavez in jail after his coup of 1992 and the one spent by Leopoldo Lopez since he has been accused of who knows what last year, as he is slowly rotting though his hunger strike. I summarize below.

Chavez has the blood of around 60 people on his hands from 1992. And more if we add the failed putsch of November 1992. Then among the targets was the attack of the presidential house which had ONLY the president's family as the president rarely slept there, or the defenseless state TV. Yet he was jailed with all the "respect" due to his middle military rank which included a constant stream of visitors that included from relatives to all sorts of journalists. His opinions on the profane and the divine circulated widely. At times it is true that he was briefly shut out but even then he had access to all possible commodities his detention center could offer and NGO visits as needed. That we know of, no torture report exist on Chavez or any of the people associated with his putsch and detained along him at the time.

Leopoldo Lopez is short three months of the detention time that Chavez served. And yet compared to Chavez his detention time has been truly gruesome. It has included beatings, deprivations, long isolations, denial of visitation for his relatives lawyers NGO journalists and more. All public is international knowledge. He is accused of crimes that he could not have not directly ordered even if he had wanted to.  And the case is so farfetched that he is suffering of denial of justice through a travesty trial which is abundantly denounced even outside of Venezuela. Leopoldo Lopez is currently on hunger strike, Chavez never had to resort to anything of the like. And I am not talking of the dozens of people that have been incarcerated along Lopez who have suffered from torture to other unspeakable horrors.

Then again in 1992 Venezuela was a democracy and today it is a tyranny.

The only question here is how come this fact is not more vocally denounced around the world. What gives? Are ethics so in disfavor today? Has the left so abandoned its raison d'être?

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1) reminder, Tal Cual was forced through spurious law suits and lack of paper to shut down its daily edition and go to a weekly tabloid format, leaving Venezuela with only two national independent-opposition newspapers, El Nacional and El Nuevo Pais. Period.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

De genocidas y huelgas de hambre

Pienso que ya está bien, que ya Leopoldo y Daniel y los otros presos políticos tienen que terminar una huelga de hambre que logró lo poco que podría lograr. Si es que logró algo en verdad, que esta por verse.

Vamos a hablar claro. Estamos frente a un gobierno que ya se puede calificar de genocida; y cuidado que a través de este blog siempre me he rehusado a usar una palabra tan monstruosa, tan cargada de peso histórico. Es casi una dignificación perversa de atribuir esta palabra al patético elenco criminal que hoy nos desgobierna.

Pero este gobierno ha evolucionado hacia eso, hacia una mentalidad donde no es pecado para ellos eliminar físicamente los que estorban, o sencillamente eliminar los que no gustan.

Empezaron con la lista de Tascon, un apartheid moderno que todavía el mundo civilizado no ha condenado debidamente, a su gran deshonra. Esa lista del odio no solamente se sigue usando después de 10 años pero ha sido constantemente perfeccionada a través de los listados de las Misiones bolivarianas y flujos electorales a nivel de comunas y gremios. De allí se dividió el país nítidamente entre un ellos y nosotros, entre patriotas y apátridas.

Luego empezaron los crímenes. El primer crimen fue el de dejar morir a Brito por su reclamo de tierras. Pero también ha sido un crimen dejar salir una generación de profesionales al exilio, un crimen contra el país, un asesinato al futuro. Como fue un crimen permitir que el trafico de droga se convierta en rutina, que convierta al país en un narcoestado desencadenado la sangría en los barrios que nos dan una matazón con niveles de país en guerra. Todos, todos eso crímenes son imputables a Hugo Chávez pero los pagarán otros.

Pero el ultimo paso hacia el genocidio es la propia indiferencia a la muerte de los inocentes, cuando los poderosos tienen otros menesteres que atender y no se pueden preocupar en buscar siquiera alguna excusa. No es que Hugo Chávez se preocupase en buscar excusas para sus crímenes, pero la repartición de dinero acallaba la conciencia de muchos, incluyendo muchos opositores.

Venezuela ha llegado a este punto revelador porque ahora faltan las medicinas y el gobierno no permite que lleguen.  Ya hay enfermedades que son criticas y el gobierno prefiere que se mueran todos en vez de permitir que se abra un resquicio para que por lo menos algunos puedan importar lo que puedan. Eso se niega porque seria admitir que 15 años de gestión han sido errados, que las arcas están vacías. Pero los genocidas son todos, sin excepción, seres cegados por el orgullo y no se abrirán compuertas. Los jerarcas pueden salir del país a hacer lo que quieran para su salud pero nosotros venezolanos todos estamos condenados a la indiferencia absoluta a nuestras necesidades por parte del gobierno, muriendo en una falsa igualdad, sin que le duela a nadie. Solo se salvarán los que el gobierna decida que se salven.

Llamemos esto "genocidio del siglo XXI".

En toda franqueza ¿alguien en verdad espera que el gobierna evitará que se mueran los huelguistas de hambre? Lo digo con toda responsabilidad, estoy seguro que muchos en el gobierno desean la muerte de Leopoldo y Daniel. No les importa las consecuencias.  Por esto le pido a todos los que están en huelga de hambre que por favor desistan, que busquen otros medios de lucha, que con genocidas no hay chantaje que funcione.


Friday, June 05, 2015

State terrorism in Venezuela

The appearance of Diosdado Cabello on the front page of the WSJ along a few others such as Aragua governor Tarek el Assaimi with a detailed list of all the investigations underway for their links to drug trafficking and what have you reminded us that there is no happy ending in sight for Venezuela. In case you doubted it this week brought us a few examples. I suppose it all started with the rather successful rallies last Saturday in support of Leopoldo Lopez. I was there and I took the panoramic below (Samsung feature).



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